Poems

Why Good. Turning the volume up now. These lean longer, louder, more dramatic, more hungry to be felt. More bedroom mirror,parking lot, radio after midnight, big feelings in a small town. **47. Bedroom Mirror After Midnight***(about age 16)* The mirror in my room is meanest after midnight.In daylight it is only glass, cheapand square and […]

Where The Corner Bar Used To BeThey painted over old brick with that clean white shine,Hung a sign that says “Lofts” where the jukebox used to grind.Bench where we skipped class turned into a bike rack rail,And the old man’s bodega sits empty with a big “For Sale.” Barber pole stopped spinning, shop windows papered

Where the Money Rests The money rests in a numbered account in a warm climate,In a jurisdiction that asks very few questions of the wealthy,The money rests in the tropical sun at the optimal rate,The money rests while the country it came from is unhealthy. Where the money rests is where the obligation ends,Where the

When It’s Good It’s Quiet The best nights don’t make good stories —the best nights are the ones where nothing happens,where the evening just proceeds without incident,without a moment you’d pull out at a dinner party.The best nights are her on the couch with her book,me in the kitchen doing something with the dishes,some shared

What the Root Knows The root knows what the leaf does not and cannot know,the texture and the chemistry of how the water flows,through the substrate and the temperature at five feet deep,and what the root knows is the information the leaves keep. What the root knows is older than the tree,what the root knows

What the Body Knows When It Has Nothing The body keeps a ledger of what’s owed and what it gets,it doesn’t dwell on longing but it tallies up the debts.When the credit runs to zero and the columns won’t align,the body starts to renegotiate along a different line. What the body knows when it has

What We’ve BuiltYou don’t build the ordinary love on purpose or with plan,don’t sit down and designer the ordinary manthat you want to be inside the daily life you’re in—you just show up every morningand the building starts again. Over months and years the showing up accumulates,over months and years the consistency createsa structure that

What She Saw in Me I’ve never been entirely sure what she saw in me —I mean that seriously, not as false modesty —when we met I was not in the best configuration,not the worst I’d been but not the highlight reel.She’ll tell you, when pressed, that she saw something —the potential shape, the direction-of-travel

What The Mirror CostsI don’t stay where the glass hangs on the wall.Learned young to keep moving pastthe inventory of what’s there—the jaw, the eyes, the hairline’s slow retreat,whatever the total amounts to.What the mirror costs is what it costs me. Some men wake and the glass shows a friend.Some men look in and the

What Momentum Does Momentum does not ask for maintenance, it demands it,it will not hold its weight unless you stand itagainst the friction that accumulates without your noticing,momentum is not a gift, it is a thing worth fostering. What momentum does is multiply the force behind the motion,every step you have already taken feeds the